The Cake Chronicles Part I: Fond of Fondant
by AliceinBlunderland
Summary: Ga-eul finds solace in her work as a cake-decorator for her family's catering business. It's business as normal until her family dares to deny the Ootori family their service.


**Important**: I'm releasing this teaser as an apology. While editing a couple of my chapters in another story, I accidently mixed up a chapter with another one. This is _not the final edition_. It may be edited by the time the official release comes around, and chapters will be edited until then. I apologize for the mix-up, and I hope this makes up for it.

* * *

Walking down the aisle, she saw the groom. He looked "dashing", which was weird, because she never really understood that phrase, in his tuxedo.

Sure, Ga-eul could remember the first day she met Ootori Kyoya. In fact, it was exactly two days after she met a strange girl with an impossible request. Ga-eul met her on a Sunday… Yes, one Ootori on Sunday, and another one on a Tuesday. It seemed it was two too much.

_That fateful Sunday..._

"Kun-emo! Eldest-Aunt! The rice is ready!" Ga-eul had heard the bleeping of the rice cooker in the left side of the kitchen over her quiet work of decorating a wedding cake, unlike her Aunt. Jae-Hwan was known to acquire sudden deafness whenever she had to cook on a prep day, the days before a big catering event. Then again… it probably was hard to hear over the sizzling of pans, chopping of vegetables, and going-off of multiple timers. All in a day's work for a head chef. Ga-eul tried again, resting the fondant and cupping her hands over her mouth, "**Rice is done!**" Great… now she had to wash her hands again. Well, it seemed to do the trick anyways.

"**Okay!**" Jae-Hwan yelled. Her hands were all over the place, there was no way she was going to get the fried rice done while she was handling _three plates_. **"Actually, Ga-eul, can you tell your mother to start on Plate Number Four? My hands are a little full…"**

Ga-eul sighed, it seemed she wasn't going to get a lot of work done right now. **"Okay!"** After hearing a nearly-silent "thank-you", she rolled the cake cart back in the refrigerator, walked into the hallway, and headed towards the _right_ side of the kitchen, which handled dish-washing and other cleaning stuff. Ga-eul peeked her head through the curtain. Currently, Ga-eul's mother, Mae-Hwan, was hard at work, washing some plates. "Hey, Mom?"

Mae-Hwan turned her head to look at her daughter, "Hey, sweetie! What's up?"

"Can you take care of Plate Number Four? The rice is ready and Kun-emo's kind of busy."

Mae-Hwan turned back to the plate she was furiously scrubbing. She hated grease stains. "Hm… Plate Number Four… That's the fried rice?"

"Yup."

"Okay, I'll be right there." Ga-eul turned around to get back to her cake when she heard her mom say something.

"Wait," Mae-Hwan turned the faucet off, turned around, and, smiling, looked at Ga-eul, "how's the cake coming along?"

Ga-eul thought about it, "Pretty well, I just need to finish the fondant* on the base layer of the cake, and then do some piping, but I'll save the piping for tomorrow."

Mae-Hwan walked toward her daughter, "Ah, Ga-eul, you're so responsible." She aimed for a hug. Ga-eul stepped away.

"Uh, you don't want to get your hands dirty, Mom." It was true, cake-decorating is messy work, and Ga-eul was covered head-to-toe in flour, frosting, sugar, and the like.

"You're right…" A distant voice called,

"**Mae-Hwan! Hurry!" **Meanwhile, Jae-Hwan was juggling three dishes to perfection.

"Ooh, **coming Ohn-nii (**Sister, especially elder**)!**" Mae-Hwan turned to leave. "Oh, Ga-eul? Can you do me a favor and wash the rest of the dishes?" Mae-Hwan gave a pleading look and Ga-eul couldn't help but comply.

"Alright."

"Thank you!" And Mae-Hwan rushed to the other side of the kitchen. Ga-eul sighed to herself, and went to the sink.

"No problem."

Truly, Ga-eul didn't mind washing the dishes, it was a very robotic thing to do, and it gave her time to think.

_Let's see_: It had been ten years since her family moved to Japan from Seoul, South Korea. It had been eight years since they'd opened a catering/ café business for mainly Korean, but also other cultural dishes. Six years since they'd let Ga-eul work a bit inside the kitchen. Five and 11/12 years since they'd figured out that Ga-eul had almost no luck in the kitchen. Five and 10/12 or five and 5/6 years since Ga-eul found her calling in cake decorating and plating. Two years since they'd become a nationally-renown, family-run business. Six months since her family had appointed her one of the head cake decorator. Ga-eul was deciding she was living a very productive life when…

Ting. Ting.

She could barely hear it, but it was there. Unlike her mother and aunt, Ga-eul had a sense of hearing. It was the customer service bell.

Ting. Ting.

Under normal circumstances, she would have had no hesitation about answering to the customers needs, but… today they were closed. They always closed the café and the front desk on prep days and catering days. Even the customers hosting the catering event knew to call in beforehand, but no one had called that day.

Ga-eul arrived at the front desk with her head bowed, trying to wipe sugar off her pants whilst walking, "I'm sorry, but we're…" She paused, finally getting a good look at the trespasser. It was an older, but still young woman in a black dress. She had jet-black hair, and a good-natured composure, "…closed. We will reopen in three days ." Ga-eul plastered a smile on her face as she expected the woman to leave. She didn't. Instead, she offered her left hand to shake. Ga-eul did so, confused, but she noticed a ring on her fourth finger. _Great, now I have to wash my hands again. _"My name is Fuyumi. Ootori Fuyumi, but you can just call me Fuyumi." _An Ootori, huh?_, Ga-eul thought. It wasn't exactly news that they were one of the richest families in Japan. What business did they have here?

"Nice to meet you, Fuyumi-san, my name is Ga-eul, and I apologize, but…"

"Ah? Ga-eul-chan? What an interesting name! It sounds foreign…" _Wow, she talks a lot. _

"Y-yes, it means 'autumn' in Korean. Um, look, we're really busy here, and…"

"Korean? Wow, so cool! Can I call you Akiko? I don't want to mess your name up and it basically means the same thing…"

"Um, sure, that's my Japanese name, but," She took a deep breath to rush the next words together and get her point across, "I'm-sorry-but-we're-close-for-today." She pointed to the big, red sign at the door. Fuyumi looked confused.

"Eh? But it says 'open'." Ga-eul did a mental face-palm.

"Well, no. You see, it says 'closed' on the other side so when you look at it from the outside, it says 'closed'." Ga-eul watched Fuyumi's expression fall.

"Ah, but, Aki-chan… Can you make a small exception since we're such close friends already?" _Oh gosh_. "I have a wedding coming up, and I need to go travel on business tomorrow, so I won't be able to register for catering, and I really love your food! I had some at a business partner's wedding and it was delicious!" _Wow. Guilt, flattery. She's got it down. _The part that really got her, though, was the repeated mention of _business_. "I'll pay for any inconveniences this will cause your business. " Ga-eul thought about it, and what it would do for the catering. If it was the Ootori's daughter that was getting married, there were probably _a lot_ of other rich partners eating their food. Plus, if she turned this girl down, it wouldn't make for good publicity.

"I'll see what I can do for you, Fuyumi-san." Ga-eul shifted over to the computer, where they type the catering order entries. Fuyumi started blabbing on about her wedding. _Let's see… Last name, Ootori, First name, Fuyumi. Catering event type, wedding. Bride or groom, bride. Groom's last name…_ "Excuse me," Ga-eul started, interrupting the bride-to-be's chatter, "but what's your fiancé's name?"

"Ah, yes. Shido…" She started keying in his name, when she realized, throughout all of Fuyumi's happy, one-sided, discussion, she didn't mention anything about her soon-to-be husband. Thinking about regular brides, and Fuyumi's place in the business world, she realized,

"Was this an arranged marriage?" The question looked like it caught Fuyumi out of place.

"...Is that in the ordering form?" Ga-eul then realized the inappropriateness of her question.

"Oh, no, I was just… I'm sorry." The room was silent. She went back to typing. _Date of event… _"Um, when _is _your wedding?"

Fuyumi went back to her happy self, "Right! January 20th." Ga-eul started typing when, _January 20__th? _She checked the calendar. Today was January 5th. Just four days after New Year's. That gave them a little more than two weeks! No, even less, because of the Kato wedding in two days. How many people were going to come?

The bride-to-be saw Ga-eul's shocked expression. "Is something wrong?" Ga-eul turned to face the bride.

"How many people are you planning to invite to your wedding?"

"No more than 800 guests." _8__00 guests? We've never had an event that large! _She tried to maintain a calm composure.

"Do you know what types of food you'd prefer?"

"Sure, you're food is so fantastic, is it okay to just order everything? Oh! And a rather large cake… guests love cake." _Everything? We don't even _have_ a catering package with _everything _to order… _and _a cake. That will probably take a week non-stop to decorate! _"Is everything okay? Is it a little too much?"

"I'm sorry, it's just… we've never had an event this large and on such short notice!" Fuyumi looked apologetic.

"Yes, I apologize. Actually, our wedding planner was supposed to be here one month ago, but there was some miscommunication." _Yeah, one month sounds a little more doable._ "Is it still possible?"

"I believe so. We'll just have to close our café for the next two weeks. This will have to be our main focus. Let me check if we have any other events already scheduled." To keep organized, Ga-eul's family created a master schedule/calendar after putting up with too much disorder. She checked the master schedule, and, sure enough… "Actually, I'm sorry. We already have an event on January 21st, and they registered a month ago. I apologize." Ga-eul just watched as Fuyumi's bright aura turned a dark purple.

"Are you sure you can't make an exception?" She pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but we pride ourselves in keeping our word with our customers. You could be the President of the United States of America, and we would have the told you the same thing."

Fuyumi sighed dejectedly, "I guess that's an honorable thing." Fuyumi was, admittedly, a little irked. No one had ever rejected her family name before, and this was her wedding! At the same time, she also understood how important it was to keep your word in the business world. Perhaps she could… "Ah, Aki-chan, who booked that event? On the 21st?"

Ga-eul was immediately suspicious, there was something in Fuyumi's voice that had changed, "Why…?"

"I'm just curious, is all."

"I think that's private information." _What would she do with their information? _"I'm sorry, but you'll have to leave now, Fuyumi-san. We're honored that you would consider us to cater your wedding, but unfortunately we're very busy at the moment. This way, please." The young cake-decorator led the fiancée out the door.

That was the breaking point for Fuyumi. She was normally good-tempered, but in spite of all the tricks she learned from her father, she was just led out the door. It went against everything she was taught. If you knew the tricks of the trade, you'd receive anything. It was time to resort to different measures. Ootori's were determined, and she wasn't about to break the tradition by just giving up.

Meanwhile,

"Ga-eul, who was that? Sorry I couldn't come over and help out; I burnt the plate the first time I tried. I've never attempted adding _that _many ingredients to rice before…" Mae-Hwan started.

"It's fine, Mom, just a confused customer…" She wasn't lying, "Hey mom, where did we put the tin of nonpareils**?

But that was only Sunday. That was a long time ago.

This was not her wedding.

* * *

*Rolled Fondant/Fondant Icing- Soft, dough-like, sugary substance used to mold onto the top of cakes for a "smooth appearance". It may also be used to create different shapes.

**Nonpareils- Little, colorful balls of sugar. They are seen decorating gingerbread houses, and are the little, white beads on Sno-Caps.


End file.
